I recently purchased a used Speedlite 580 EX and seem to be having difficulty with it and I am not sure if it is the flash unit or me. When I turn the flash on it goes through a series of clicking noises coming from the flash head. It seems to be stuck in the ETTL mode with Zoom--mm flashing on the display. I have the flash connected to a 5D Mark II using an Off-Camera Shoe Cord OC-E3.
Any help or confirmation that the unit is broke would be much appreciated.
When I pulled out the wide panel is would go to 14mm but when I put it back in it would start to flash again. I gave it a few gental wacks on the side and now everything seems to be working just fine!
The zoom is actually only 24 - 105mm. The wide angle panel expands it further optically. The zoom mechanism can come off the tracks.
The 580ex will automatically zoom to 50mm when tilted above horizontal. There is also -7 degree detent downward past horizontal for close in shooting which will cause the flash icon on the display to blink. When switched to Master or Slave the flash head zooms to the widest 24mm position for widest possible coverage. Those automatic zoom positions can be overridden with the zoom button.
I've written several tutorials on Canon flash which fill the gaps in the manual. Just click the WWW button below to link to them.
